Nationally Based Data: Challenges for Global Governance (and Global Policy)

Abstract

The current statistical picture of the world is probably the best it has ever been. But it also entails major limitations. In this article we show the limitations by focusing on three key areas: security, economy of development and the environment, and argue that they undermine the performance of global governance, and the possibility of global policy. In particular they do not allow taking the full measure and managing optimally the changes underway at the global level. To overcome this state of affairs, upgrading statistical capabilities is critical. To achieve this objective, the article suggests, among other ideas: adjusting and adapting the conceptualization, collection and implementation of statistical data to a world that is on its way to becoming global; improving the conditions of compilation of statistical data in developing countries; and investing in institution-building and innovation, in developed and developing countries, and in national and international organizations. Policy Implications• Optimizing policy and management in a world partially or fully globalized calls for the need to adjust data that is 'part and parcel' of public policy.• It is necessary to continue to improve the modalities of compilation of statistical data. Hence, making more efforts for standardization and helping support further developing countries to collect data.• The need to invest in institution-building and innovation, in developed and developing countries, and in national and international organizations. This entails improving the ways in which data professionals are trained, conduct research and then exercise their profession.• Increase the level of transparency of data conceptualization, production and dissemination in order to address the growing problem of lack of trust, especially in the financial and economic areas following the mismanagement of information in the context of the 2008 economic crisis In recent years taking the global governance and global policy agenda seriously is emerging as a more and more pressing requirement. The growing globalization of the world (Aart Scholte, 2008), with developments such as the spread of information technology (IT), the Janus face of economic globalization (generating within and among nations, integration and disintegration, winners and losers (de la Dehesa, 2006)), and the 2008 financial and economic crisis and its impact, makes countries increasingly interdependent and in need of being better globally managed in order to optimize opportunities and minimize risks. At the same time, this global governance/global policy agenda continues to be an uphill battle. One of the reasons for this is that the data that global governance and global policy rely on to formulate and implement governance and policy has serious shortcomings.Indeed, although the statistical data available today amounts to the best picture ever put out at the national, regional and global levels, 1 it is not necessarily good enough to satisfy the demands of the present time, let alone the ones of tomorrow....

Local Knowledge on Development The Missing Link in the Research-Policy Nexus of Sustainable Development

“…This distortion is not due to the lack of data per se, but rather because of the existing gaps in the data systems. Development along with security and the environment are the three fields of global public policy that are suffering from data gaps (Coicaud & Tahri, 2014), caused by procedural and methodological shortcomings. Three types of shortcomings are challenging the realization of the 2030 Agenda.…”

Administering and Governing with Technology: The Question of Information Communication Technology and E‐Governance

“…5. Refer for instance to Seifert and Bonham (2004 Coicaud and Tahri (2014). On the reality of science as a social construction, in which values take a part, see also the work of Bruno Latour (1999) for example.…”

“… Statistics is another field of technology/science where ideology and self‐serving interests can be embedded in the technology and science themselves. On this, refer for instance to Coicaud and Tahri (). On the reality of science as a social construction, in which values take a part, see also the work of Bruno Latour () for example. …”

The Sustainable Development Goals Confront the Infrastructure of Measurement

“…There is also concern that it is governments that are accountable to their citizens for SDG compliance while the foundations, companies, and civil society organizations that provide private funding are not (Adams and Judd, ). Coicaud and Tahri () note that in contrast to national statistics, which are generally publicly available and in theory promote the public good, private companies collect digital information for profit and the data are proprietary. They point to a gap between the content, actors, and methodology of the official statistical culture and the new information one (Coicaud and Tahri, ).…”

“…Coicaud and Tahri () note that in contrast to national statistics, which are generally publicly available and in theory promote the public good, private companies collect digital information for profit and the data are proprietary. They point to a gap between the content, actors, and methodology of the official statistical culture and the new information one (Coicaud and Tahri, ). A seminar on the ‘data revolution’ at the UN Statistical Commission in March 2018 emphasized the importance of national statistical offices in gathering SDG data and their responsibility for validating data, adopting internationally agreed standards, and assuring quality.…”